Simplified Calculation of Flow Resistance of Suspension Bridge Main Cable Dehumidification System

To calculate the flow resistance of a main cable dehumidification system,this study considers the air flow in the main cable as the flow in a porous medium,and adopts the Hagen–Poiseuille equation by using average hydraulic radius and capillary bundle models.A mathematical derivation is combined with an experimental study to obtain a semi-empirical flow resistance formula.Additionally,Fluent software is used to simulate the flow resistance across the main cable relative to the experimental values.Based on the actual measured results for a Yangtze River bridge,this study verifies the semi-empirical formula,and indicates that it can be applied in actual engineering.